The Indian government’s policy of using treated sewage water to run operations in coal-fired power plants is not economically viable and will do little to resolve conflicts over water use An ambitious plan to reduce the dependence of India’s coal-fired power plants on freshwater has stalled in its starting blocks.
The policy for some plants to use treated sewage water, introduced last year, is impractical and economically non-viable, according to a recent report by Greenpeace India.
The report also states that less than 11% of India’s total treated sewage water can be used by thermal power plants.
Some 3.5 litres of water are needed to produce one unit of energy and across India, coal power plants use an estimated 4.6 billion cubic metres of freshwater per year, enough to meet the basic needs of 250 million people.
But sewage treatment facilities are mostly built in urban areas, away from power plants.
The use of sewage to meet coal power plants’ cooling needs will not resolve the conflict over water between thermal power plants and farmers and urban communities, Greenpeace said.
In addition to the billions needed to invest in treatment facility infrastructure, the report claims that coal plants that can viably use wastewater will see water costs soar by at least 300% — a financial burden that would be passed on to customers.
In March 2016, the 1,700 MW Raichur thermal power station in the Krishna River basin was closed for several days due to water shortages.
The effect of low water levels in March last year was also dramatically driven home when National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), India’s largest power generation company, completely halted production at its 2,100 MW Farakka plant in the eastern state of West Bengal.
See: Low water reserves spell trouble for India Switching from freshwater to treated sewage water will not reduce the impact of coal power plants on India’s water scarcity, the environmental lobby group said.